1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to label holders and relates more particularly to holders for electronic devices generally mounted at the front of a merchandise shelf in a retail establishment to provide information regarding products carried by the shelf.
Consumer-oriented product information labels are commonly found in supermarkets, drug stores, and the like and provide purchasers with the unit price, promotional and nutritional information, and the like and, also, commonly include bar codes or other inventory control information for the use of the store personnel. Such information may be carried on paper or plastic labels secured directly to the side of a shelf unit or the front edge of a merchandise shelf, but the use of adhesively-backed labels has obvious disadvantages in the constantly changing commercial environment found in today's marketplace. More often, the front edge of the merchandise shelf is provided with an integral C-channel or the like which is adapted to either carry the labels directly or, alternatively, to carry plastic holders which are adapted to removably receive and display the labels in a well known manner. Label holders adapted for use in various environments will be seen in commonly assigned U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,625,441, 4,716,669, 5,458,307, 5,488,793, 5,515,632, 5,678,699, 5,682,698, 5,899,011 and 6,163,996, the subject matters of which are incorporated herein in their entirety by reference (“the label holder patents”). These patents are cited merely as exemplary to illustrate the many and varied forms such devices can take.
More recently, in place of, or in addition to, such paper or plastic information containing labels, electronic information carriers have been employed. Electronic shelf labels (ESLs) are generally integrated with the in-store processor (ISP) or a free-standing controller that communicates with file information supporting the store's point-of-sale system. The ESL system may include low-voltage communication electronics or communication base stations (CBS) located in store ceilings away from the store operations. The ESLs are positioned throughout the store to identify an item's retail price and other information of interest to the consumer or for use by the store's inventory system.
Price changes may be initiated through the store's controller which updates item price files. This information, which has an association to a particular product identified by item number or UPC code, is communicated to the CBS in the ceiling and transmitted via a high frequency radio signal to the corresponding ESL.
The ESLs are programmed with differing addresses that are also associated with the item number or UPC code of the product they represent. Once the addressed device is found, the label display changes and reflects an acknowledgment back to the CBS to confirm that the transmission was received and enacted. This acknowledgment is then communicated back to the ISP to complete the transaction.
These systems, such as produced by NCR under its DecisioNet™ trademark, allow the ESLs to be independent of wires and cables below the ceiling, which reduces installation time and cost. Since there are no wires or cables required from the ceiling down, the label is free to be positioned anywhere. When store shelf resets occur, ESLs move easily with the shelves.
These ESL units, however, much like paper labels, require a carrier device to facilitate supporting them at selected locations, usually on the front of a store merchandise shelf. It is ESL carriers of this type with which the instant invention is concerned.
2. Description of the Related Art
Several carriers for electronic shelf labels have been developed, including the device seen in U.S. Pat. No. 6,119,990, the subject matter of which is also incorporated herein in its entirety by reference (the '990 patent). The '990 patent recognizes some of the problems associated with ESLs, including the need to be able to adjust the orientation of the carrier, and thus, the ESL, to permit the viewer to more readily see the information, particularly if the electronic label is attached to a relatively low, or relatively high, shelf. Similar problems are associated with paper or plastic labels and a variety of holders have been developed to enable the orientation of such labels to be modified as needed. However, because of the unique construction of the ESLs, the arrangements used heretofore with paper or plastic labels are not particularly useful.
The construction proposed by the '990 patent for enabling an ESL to be carried and positioned at differing angles has a number of commercial disadvantages. In addition to being somewhat complex and, therefore, more expensive to manufacture, it is difficult to use, requiring the ESL to be removed from the carrier in order to re-orient the same at a different angle. The '990 patent adjusts the angular orientation of the ESL by rotating or sliding complementary concave and convex surfaces of adaptor and holder elements relative to each other, and then fixing the elements in a particular orientation by separate fastener elements such as dart clips, push pins or the like. Such a systems is labor-intensive, increasing the costs to the merchandiser. Moreover the use of separate fastening elements is a nuisance since such items are not integrated with the label holder and, therefore, easily dropped or misplaced.